This ride was actually 27.5 miles. This shows what I did after the ride over to see Richard (https://ridewithgps.com/trips/17016739). It turns out Richard was in bed asleep so I didn't see him. I decided to meander around and explore.
One of Bryan's coworkers had asked me about bike racks that fit on the trunk of a car so I decided I might as well stop by Performance Bike during the meander. Then, I was meandering around and decide to pass by son's house as it is a nice route. I suspected he would be at work and his car was gone, so I was probably right. I found myself close to Golden House Chinese restaurant, which is our favorite place, so I called Daunell and asked if she wanted to eat there. She was game and came an met me.
After we ate, I set out again and and ended up Northbound on Freeman. I decided to find one of those gravel roads to ride up. I turned on a road that turned out to be paved and not the one I intended to turn on. But, I decided I would continue on it. I had to turn North and that is when it turned to gravel/sand. It was rough and had sand in places that was difficult to forge through. I lost one of my water bottles out of the holder on the back of my seat. But, that was noticed as I almost got stuck in some sand. The water bottle was just about 50 ft. behind me.
As I rode this road, there were a number of places I had to gear down to my lowest gear in order to make it through the sand. On one hill, I kept spinning out and my front wheel pulled completely to the left so I was almost perpendicular to the line of travel. I really didn't want to have to pull the trike up the hill. I wanted to succeed! So I backed up a little and I helped the left wheel (the non-drive wheel) with my left hand as I pedaled and gave power to the right wheel. I was able to make it to the top! I succeeded! I count this a "mountain triking" experience.